Al, who was lying on his bed at the moment, seemed to sense my excitement and even though he seemed happy for me, he pointed out the obvious thing that I seemed to be forgetting.

“Mate, she said yes to helping you, not yes to dating you.”

God dammit, why am I so bloody stupid? I get so worked up over everything.

“Oh, right…” I said.

Al looked uncomfortable.

“Look, before you get too happy about this, I need to set some ground rules.”

Here we go. I knew he was going to do this. He’s just as, if not more, protective over Rose as he is over Lily, so it was only a matter of time before he gave me some kind of speech.

“Rose is like my sister,” he said, “so I need you to know that even though we are best mates, James and I will kick your arse if you break her heart. Family always comes first, and if I find out you’ve hurt her in any way…” He didn’t even bother continuing that sentence; I knew where he was getting at.

“Mate, would I even be trying this hard if I was going to hurt her? I know you probably don’t want to hear this Al, but I think I’m in love with her. I don’t even ‘just fancy’ her anymore.”

He didn’t even look too surprised about this, but just stood up clapped me on the back. “I know, but James would kill me if I didn’t tell you that. Make sure you tell him I told you after she says yes,” he said, smirking.

“So you think she’ll say yes then?” I asked. I felt like a child who’s Christmas had come early.

“You both are so blind,” he replied. “You have both loved each other since as long as I could remember. Pretty much everyone knows. Well, except Dom. She’s pretty much in her own world.”

I laughed at that. “I hope you’re right, mate, I hope you’re right.”

*

Al and I made our way down to the common room about a half hour later to get our homework done.

I was about halfway through with it when a first year girl came into the common room and tapped me on the shoulder.

“Um, Scorpius?” she asked, unsure if she came to the right person.

“Yeah?”

“This is for you,” she said, handing me a note. My name was scribbled on it in swirly handwriting; obviously from a girl.

“Thanks.” I said to the girl, and when she walked away I opened the note.

Scorpius,

How’d it go? I’m so excited about tomorrow, and I can’t wait to hear all the details! Fancy meeting me in the library? I would come in your common room, but as Head Girl, that would be setting a bad example… If you want to, I’ll be in the library until about 9 and then I have duty, so come meet me if you have time!

-Molly.

Man, girls never got enough of this stuff, but I decided to go anyways. She did help me out a lot, and maybe she could help me finish up this essay. I folded up the letter, stuffed it in my pocket and stood up to leave.

“I’m going to the library, mate, I’ll see you around.”

“Alright,” said Al, not even looking up from his own essay. “See you.”

I packed up my things and headed out of the common room. It was a pretty long walk from the dungeons all the way up to the library, so I decided to take it slow. I was a sixth year after all; my curfew wasn’t as early as the rest of the schools.

My mind was wandering as I thought all about tomorrow. I played every scenario in my head probably a thousand times today, but right now was the one where she said yes. She would leap into my arms and thank me for setting up such a wonderful date. As I turned the corner, I ran straight into the girl in question and we both collapsed to the floor.

Dom was with her and started laughing uncontrollably as both Rose and I tried to untangle ourselves from each other. I was the first to get up, and when I helped Rose up, she got up but fell straight into my arms.

“I knew you would fall for me sooner or later, Weasley,” I smirked, catching her. I knew how much she hated it when I called her by her last name and this moment was just too good to pass up. Messing with Rose was one of my favorite pastimes.

“Don’t be so full of yourself Malfoy, you are going on a date with someone tomorrow,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

I laughed in spite of myself. “Where are you two going to, anyways?” Rose was still locked tightly in my arms and when I loosened my grip she slipped out, quite red in the face.

“The dungeons,” said Dom, not seeming to notice the little moment we just had. “We need to talk to Al. Can you give us the password?”

“Severus Snape,” I said, and the girls started laughing again.

“That’s the best you guys could come up with?” asked Dom.

“Al must be thrilled. He’s wanted his name as a password since third year,” laughed Rose.
Merlin, she was cute when she laughed.

“Yeah, well. I didn’t get to choose it,” I said chuckling. “But I’ve got to go. See you around.”

“’Bye,” they chorused. I looked back once more and Rose seemed to be picking up something off the floor from when we collided.

I finally made it to the library and spotted Molly as soon as I walked in. She looked up from the sound of the door opening and a smile quickly appeared on her face. She waved to me, and I walked over to where she was sitting.

“So how’d it go?” she asked excitedly, but in a whisper. Madam Pince wouldn’t be happy for the disturbances so late at night.

“Well, she said she’d help me!” I said, just as excited. “That was the first step, eh? Now she just has to say yes to the date.”

“You guys have been in the friend zone for way too long,” she said wisely.

“I couldn’t agree with you more.”

And then we set to work on our homework, chatting mildly about nothing really in particular. An unspoken friendship was quickly made, and as I thought about it, I really like how it sounded.

A/N: I know it was short and kind of a filler but please rate & review! :)